Page 138 of Hard Bargain

“Then why not tonight?”

Knox looked away. “You know why.”

“Tell me.”

He dragged a hand through his hair before letting it fall back. “She wanted to, but I couldn’t. She isn’t you, and apparently that matters now.”

Dominic moved before Knox could finish the breath that followed. His hand closed around the back of Knox’s neck and hauled him in, mouth crashing against his. Knox kissed back without thinking, gripping onto Dominic’s shoulders—the intensity hitting fast and hard.

Dominic pulled back just as abruptly. “Good,” he said against Knox’s mouth. “As long as I’m fucking you, you’re not fucking anyone else.”

Knox’s heart was hammering. “Then the same goes for you.”

“Yeah,” Dominic said. “It does.”

They lay there for a moment, their breathing settling, staring into each other’s eyes. The quiet that followed wasn’t empty—it was full with everything that had just been said.

“Can I ask you something?” Knox said.

Dominic’s grip eased at his neck without letting go. “Yeah.”

“A while back… you said you were straight.”

“Yes.”

Knox’s fingers tightened against Dominic’s side. “So how can you be straight if you’re fucking me?”

Dominic was quiet, actually thinking about it, which Knox hadn’t expected. He’d expected deflection, or nothing at all. Instead Dominic looked slightly bewildered and said, “Men don’t do anything for me. Never have.”

Knox frowned. “But—”

“It’s you,” Dominic said, like that explained everything. “Just you.”

Just you.

Two words. They shouldn’t have hit that hard. He had to look away before he trusted himself to speak. “I told Tara about you tonight.”

“You did?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed his eyes. “I thought I was going to lose her.”

“Why?”

“Because of my dad. He was really fucking clear about stuff like this. Growing up, it was always the same shit. How it was wrong, disgusting, weak. He drilled it in so hard I didn’t even question it. Just took it as fact for a long time.”

Dominic didn’t interrupt him, just lay there and listened.

“I guess I figured she would feel the same. But she didn’t leave. She stayed.”

The relief of it was there, tangled up with everything else.

“And now I’m lying here trying to figure out what the hell it all means.” He stared at the ceiling. “I keep thinking about things from when I was younger. Things I never questioned because I knew what dad would’ve called it.” His throat tightened. “I think maybe it was always there. And I think he knew. That’s why he never stopped threatening me.”

Knox looked at Dominic. “I think I’m bi,” he said.

The words left his mouth and existed in the world, impossible to take back. Everything else seemed to fall away. The years he’d spent avoiding the question. The excuses. The things he’d refused to look at too closely. It was all still there, but none of it mattered as much as this.

Dominic knew now.